'Popeye' Test Footage Reveals the CG Sailor Man in Action

"From a young child I was already destined to make one movie and that movie was 'Popeye,'" says director Genndy Tartakovsky, who has been tasked to make Sony Animation's feature film rendition of the iconic character. While the man behind 'Hotel Transylvania' and his team are hard at work on the animation, the studio has released some test footage to give us an idea of what we can expect.

To be clear, the above footage is not from the actual movie. In fact, even the voices are temp. But the animation sure looks incredible, from the glimmering ocean to Popeye's facial expressions to the physical comedy of the scene. Details on the 'Popeye' animated movie are still unknown, but if all we have to go on is this test footage, at least for now, we're pretty confident something worthy of our childhood buddy can be drummed up. It also helps to hear Tartakovsky speak of his own love for the character at such a young age.

"When I first immigrated from Russia to America, I watched a lot of television," he says, "and 'Popeye' was one of those shows that, not only did I learn some bad grammar and English from, but also that I fell in love with the animation art form."

'Popeye' will be a 3D animated feature, and now release date has officially been locked down.